Friday, 31 July 2009

Friday's Forgotten Books - Eddie Muller - SHADOW BOXER

Here's my first offering for the wonderful Friday's Forgotten Books series masterminded by Patti Abbott and The Rap Sheet. This one is more of an underappreciated book than a forgotten one, as it's only a few years old.

Eddie Muller - SHADOW BOXER

San Francisco's "Mr Boxing" - sports writer Billy Nichols - is begged by ex-promoter Burnell Sanders to get him out of a hole. The hole is a jail cell he's languishing in for a murder he says he didn't commit. On the face of it, Sanders has picked the wrong person to help him - Billy played a big part in Sanders being arrested in the first place, and Billy has more than a couple of secrets relating to the whole sorry episode that he would prefer remain hidden. However, Sanders' choice of slightly tarnished white knight is shrewder than even he realises. Billy's nose for a good story, his innate sense of justice, and the temptation of a beautiful and mysterious dame lead him inexorably down the mean streets to truth and danger, as he shadow boxes his way through the book - unsure of who's telling the truth and who's putting up guards.

The outstanding appeal of this book for me is the character of Billy Nichols. His tough, cynical outer shell hides a vulnerable interior. He's not the typical macho noir protagonist. He's a sensitive, perceptive, flawed man. He's a storyteller - a chronicler of fact and, sometimes, a creator of fiction. But he's an honest liar, unlike many of the other characters in the book. Because Billy doesn't have that cold, self-destructive, caring for nothing and nobody streak that is the territory of a noir protagonist, the book is suffused with warmth, light, passion and heart.

The characters have a cinematic quality about them. Eddie Muller is a very skillful writer and so good at descriptions that, within a few sentences, the characters come to life in front of you. None of them are stereotypes - each one is capable of surprising the reader. None are all good or all bad. Muller turns the conventions of noir and hard-boiled fiction on their heads - the women in this book are the tough ones. The female characters in SHADOW BOXER are particularly well drawn. Even those who only have bit parts inspire strong emotions.

SHADOW BOXER is very much a sequel to Eddie's first book - THE DISTANCE. If you haven't read that, read it first. If you have, and are saving SHADOW BOXER for a rainy day, don't wait any longer - read it now; you won't regret it.

3 comments:

I've read the Billy Nichols novels and liked them very much. A noir-ish tough reporter, that hunts down murder as good as any detective. It's been done before, (like Flashgun Casey) and its good to see a writer as talented as Eddie Muller bring that era back.

Welcome to Badsville

This here's Badsville - the home of Scottish crime fiction - news, interviews, reviews, book-related stuff, non book-related stuff, and any other random nonsense that takes my fancy (there, that should stop me getting done under the Trade Descriptions Act). It will focus on Scottish crime fiction authors, crime fiction books set in Scotland, and authors who have a great great-uncle twice removed who may once have played football for Scotland. But it will also cover anything else that tickles my fancy because...well, because I can.

The list of authors includes all those I could find websites for. If I've missed anyone off the list, please let me know. If you want to be interviewed (you mad fool) again, please let me know. And...well, that's about it really.

"It's all hilarious and exhausting; you can't help but love The Old Dogs" Shelf Awareness

"The way she orchestrates her comic set-pieces is nothing short of genius and designed to eke out every last piece of humour." Crimesquad

"...All of the action points toward the trainwreck of heist attempts, but Moore gives us much more, continuing the action (and the fun) long after the heist itself..." International Noir Fiction

"...a heist caper, a modern farce, an adventure, a Carry-On movie on acid. The twists and turns are impossible to predict and it is to her credit that no matter how ridiculous the sets of events might be she manages to make them seem entirely credible, in part because the motives of all those who inhabit the book are so deeply believable." Sea Minor

"Donna Moore is a master at creating colourful characters and putting them into laugh out loud situations. Combine that with strong dialogue and tight pacing, and you've got yourself a brilliant book well worth the read." I Love A Good Mystery

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